London Gets Smacked Down

Tonight, the guys and gals of WWE SmackDown! made their way into town for a house (non-televised) show. My brother got tickets from a guy who walked into the pizza place he works at. He allegedly worked for FM96, and just handed 'em over. Suspicious, but hey, we got in for free.

Attendance was better than I probably would've expected. The floor and centre-ice areas were pretty much full, reasonably full on the far end from the entrance, though the corners, where Josh and I sat (111, Row G), were sparsely populated.

The card was as follows:

Match 1: Marty Wesley, a guy with Ahmed Johnson's physique, haricut, and similar music, beat Simon Dean. Pre-match, Dean did his fat audience shtick, which was funny as usual. The match was nothing special.

Match 2: Super Crazy & Psicosis beat Hardcore Holly, and a guy whose name I didn't catch. Again, nothing real memorable. A mild Super Crazy chant gave me hopes of other smarks in the crowd, though that feeling didn't come up again often.

Match 3: A guy who called himself "Mr. Anderson" beat Scotty 2 Hotty. Before the match, Anderson called Tony Chimmel an idiot, and proceeded to "put a little bass in it" and re-do his own introduction. He was actually fairly entertaining throughout. Scotty decided to search around the ring for a few minutes for something. In the turnbuckles, under the ring, and finally in his pocket. Lo and behold, he found it... a middle finger! (OH SNAPZ) Typical Scotty match, complete with Worm. Anderson pinned him with his feet on the ropes.

(Ken Anderson appeared on Velocity this week as well. He did a similar bit with the announcing, then faced Funaki, and beat him with a pretty sweet move. A fireman's carry into a Swanton Bomb, from the second rope. Lance Storm used to do a standing version of the move, and I think I've seen RVD use it to begin a sequence ending with the split-legged moonsault.)

Match 4: Nunzio beat Juvi and Funaki in a triple threat elimination Cruiserweight Title match. (Yes, he's the champ, as of last week's Velocity.) Highest spot of the match was Juvi teasing a Juvi Driver. I didn't get to start a double entendre "London" chant, dag nabbit.

Match 5: Animal & Heidenreich beat MNM in a WWE Tag Team Title match. Melina's entrance gets the most camera flashes of the night, since we apparently don't have women here in Canada. Heidenreich started the match alone, as Animal supposedly had travel problems. But he conveniently showed up to finish the match, complete with DOOMSDAY DEVICE~!, which got a huge pop.

Before an intermission, Candice Michelle shot some T-Shirts into the crowd, then scandalously removed her own clothing, and tossed it to the wolves.

Match 6: Booker T beat Orlando Jordan by DQ in a US Title match, after Christian interfered. Rey Mysterio ran out for the save, and it turned into a tag match.

Match 7: Rey Mysterio & Booker T beat Christian & Orlando Jordan. The crowd was uber-hot for this one. My brother and I cheered or Christian, to no avail, as Rey was crazy over. Standard tag match, but still fun. Best match of the night.

Match 8: Batista beat Randy Orton in a World Heavyweight Title match. Orton talked about how he was out for 4 long months, and now he had to be in a shit hole like London. He posed, and stalled awhile before the match began. Batista was also very over. Not a bad match. Brian Hebner took a decent ref bump, leading to the double-sledge low blow Batista Bomb counter Orton used at New Year's Revolution. The RKO was hit, another ref ran down to make the count, and after a 2 count, the new ref took a beating. More refless shenanigans via a title belt shot, and another 2 count. Finish came when Batista countered the 10-count punches into a Batista Bomb.

The crowd was pretty hot most of the night, especially for Animal, the last tag match, and Batista. Though even guys like Scotty, Holly and Marty Wesley got good reactions. Lots of enthusiastic kids, really. Wasn't much for a bitter old fart like me, but I'm sure the youngsters would've had fun.

So, yeah. No Benoit, no London, no Eddie. And not much in the way of wrestling for a workrate fan, especially before the intermission. A few cool moments, and fun enough. It was worth the time to go, if only for the different vibe that you get at a house show, though I'm sure I'd be less forgiving had I paid for my seat.